Amaanah Lions soccer players rarely miss practice. They are in first place in the Universal Soccer League. However, their goals are bigger than any pitch they play on. “Everyone who comes here has lost something and lost something significant,” said Richard Spragg, a volunteer who runs the program for Amannah Refugee Services in Houston.

Jan. 3, 2019 was a historic moment for the United States. The tired eyes of a frantic but hopeful nation were on the newly elected congressional representatives, one of whom was the first Muslim refugee ever elected to Congress: Ilhan Omar. The night before, Omar tweeted, “23 years ago, from a refugee camp in Kenya, my father and I arrived at an airport in Washington, D.C. Today, we return to that same airport on the eve of my swearing in as the first Somali-American in Congress.”

Devin Sanders, program coordinator for Amaanah Refugee Services, lauded a recent initiative by Lone Star College-CyFair professors and students to place mini libraries at four Houston ISD schools.
“Working as a service provider within the school districts in Houston has allowed me to see the need for more books for our students,” Sanders said. “These mini-libraries will provide our students with the opportunity to read and have access to books at any time.”

On behalf of the Amaanah Board, I am pleased to announce that Jida Nabulsi will be joining Amaanah Refugee Services’ team as the Chief Executive Officer. Her leadership will be effective December 10th, 2018.

At first, Dayana Halawo’s children, 5 and 7 years old, thought Hurricane Harvey’s thunderclaps were a more familiar sound: bombs.

Halawo, 28, and her family came to Houston from Syria as refugees last August, and until recently, she had planned to throw a party to celebrate their one-year anniversary in the country. But in the days leading up to the hurricane, she instead made five trips to the grocery store, returning each time she remembered another item she and her family might need to wait out the storm. She stopped by her neighbors’ homes to make sure they had enough food and water. By Sunday, the roads surrounding her home were flooded, forcing her to stay inside.

Dayana Halawo was nine months pregnant when Syrian planes started bombing her neighborhood in 2012.

As the nation’s brutal civil war raged into its second year, government forces began carrying out a major military offensive in Homs, a key opposition stronghold at the time. The central Syrian city, home to thousands of civilians, including Halawo, her husband Mohamed and 1-year-old son, abruptly transformed into a war zone.

Back in December, Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander announced his plan to select a group of charitable organizations in the Houston community to share a $4 million donation as part of the Rockets Season of Giving. Prospective charities registered online at Rockets.com and were then reviewed by Mr. Alexander and the Rockets Clutch City Foundation, with the recipients of the donation announced today.

A refugee’s story is not over at resettlement; in many cases it is just beginning. And one Texas nonprofit is giving newly arrived children a solid foundation to flourish in what can be the toughest months in their new country.

With the September launch of Awesome Academy in Austin, Texas, the post-resettlement nonprofit organisation Amaanah Refugee Services has a mission to guide refugee youth through their studies at the most critical time in their journey.